Graduates will join MD class in July

The next stop is the White Coat Ceremony for six graduates of the Imi Ho’ola (“Those who seek to heal”) Post-Baccalaureate Program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa's John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).

Imi Ho’ola, a program within the medical school’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health, seeks out promising college graduates from under-served or disadvantaged communities, offering them a year of intensive preparation for medical school. By completing the training, they earn a place in the next class of MD students.

The 2011 Imi Ho’ola graduates will join 60 other incoming medical students at next month’s White Coat Ceremony on July 22 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort, where the entire class will be presented the short white coats, which identify them as medical students.

The incoming medical class, with 66 students in all, is the largest single class ever for the John A. Burns School of Medicine, continuing a gradual increase in class size begun under the leadership of Dr. Jerris R. Hedges, dean of JABSOM. Ninety percent of JABSOM’s medical students are from Hawai’i or the Pacific Region.